THE ONE TRUE FAITH
1 Corinthians 15:1-10 (v. 1-2a). Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received and in which you stand, by which you also are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you.
Lord, this is Your Word, and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Almighty God, to know You is everlasting life. Grant us to know Your Son, Jesus, that we may steadfastly follow His steps to life eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ, who is the Church’s one Foundation: Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Here St. Paul describes the one true faith. You know this phrase. You hear it in the closing blessing when you receive the Lord’s Supper, that you’ll be preserved “in the one true faith.”
Often when we mention faith, we’re talking about the faith by which you believe. This is the faith a baby receives in baptism. It’s the faith you receive as a gift from God, worked by the Holy Spirit, as we know: “By grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8).
But when we say “the one true faith,” we aren’t talking about that exactly. This isn’t about your trust but what your faith consists of, what you believe in. The baby who receives faith in baptism needs to be taught what that faith consists of, needs to grow in the faith, in its teachings, or else the devil will use the world to fill that child, over time, with other things to believe.
If we don’t continue to be taught the basic truths of God’s Word, then the world is only too glad to help us believe something else and fill our minds and hearts with contradictory notions. The devil wants you to be bored with hearing “the same old thing” in church because he knows that that “same old thing” – Law and Gospel – will actually keep you safe from him.
So what does your faith consist of? That’s what this is about. In St. Paul’s opening words of 1 Corinthians 15, he tells them that they did receive the truth – “the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received and in which you stand, by which you are saved.” Then he asks about the substance of that faith, saying: “if you hold fast to that word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.”
There are two points here: First, their faith did consist of the Gospel that Paul preached to them, which is that we are “justified” – counted righteous – by God by grace, for Jesus’ sake, through faith alone. The second point is that it isn’t automatic that they would keep believing it. This is the message for us: you’ve received the Gospel; will it continue to form your faith?
So now St. Paul restates some simple truths: “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” This is basic stuff.
This is what Jesus did to save us. “Christ died for our sins,” is there anything more basic than that? If you want to tell someone what the Christian faith is, say “that Christ died for our sins.”Whose sins? Ours! Everyone’s! Then He was buried – He really died, we know it, because people saw His burial. And that “He rose again the third day” proves His death paid for all the sins.
Paul lists all these eyewitnesses of the risen Lord Jesus Christ, so many it couldn’t be disproven. It proves that all that Jesus said and did was true. It proves that not just what Jesus said of Himself was true, but also everything Jesus said quoting the Old Testament is true. Jesus quoted verses about everything being created by God “in the beginning,” about God instituting marriage for one man and one woman, about Noah’s flood, about Jonah and the three days. So the Old Testament is proven true even through Jesus’ words, by His resurrection. But the most important thing it proves is that all your sins are really paid for by His death, the absolution you hear is true.
Everything God has revealed in His written Word is true. St. Paul adds, “according to the Scriptures,” to the simple statements of Jesus’ dying on the cross and rising from the dead. The one true faith is the faith that says “according to the Scriptures.” Every word of the Bible is true.
What St. Paul has also included here are the facts about Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. He includes what Jesus did to save everyone from sin:
· He died for everyone; He died for you, taking all your sins on Himself, to the cross, to be punished for them instead of you.
· He was buried for everyone; He was buried for you, so your sins are all buried in His grave, hidden from God’s sight, never to be brought up.
· Finally, He rose from the dead to break death’s power over us. Death still hurts. We still grieve. But we’re comforted by His promises that death can’t hold anyone who believes in Him. Jesus said, “Whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die” (Jn 11:26).
What we have in these verses are the two principle foundations of the one true faith: that the Bible is completely true in all its words, and that Jesus Christ is our Savior and the Savior of the world. This is the one true faith.
These days, after modernism and post-modernism, there’s a hesitancy and reluctance to say we have the one true faith. But Jesus says, “Sanctify them by the truth. Your Word is truth,” so we learn to not be hesitant. Accordingly our own synod’s confession of faith says: “We confess that it is possible to know the truth of God’s Word, and to profess it. Taking one’s stand on the Word in matters of doctrine, after study of the Scriptures, is not an act of human pride but is an act of humble submission to God’s authority” (We Believe, Teach and Confess, els.org).
Our problem is that this is all pretty easy and clear inside these walls. The difficulty is when you step out into the world that denies there is such a thing as one true faith. A world that will accuse you of arrogance for insisting on such a thing. So what do you think? Are they right that you’re arrogant to hold to this as the one true faith? When the world accuses you of arrogance, will you be tempted to think they might be right, and back off and say, “Well, I know that it’s true for me, but I can’t insist on its truth for everybody”?
Well, first you must confess that you aren’t always humble. Sometimes we take this faith of ours for granted. You get tired of hearing the same old thing or you get bored with the Bible or with church. You take it for granted that God forgives you and may not always take sin as seriously as you should. You can and do look down on others who don’t practice Christianity as well or who aren’t believers. You can be too prideful about having the right faith.
You also can be affected by this attitude of the world we live in, so that you start to wonder if you are really in the right. How can you be so certain? And do your many sins cast doubt on whether your religion is true, or your faith is real, if we don’t seem behave much better than the rest of the world? We don’t always humbly submit to God’s Word. And then there is the fact that – far from being triumphalistic about it – often you don’t feel strong in your faith, you do waver, you struggle to believe and to hold a steady course.
Realize you’re under attack from the devil. He hates the truth. He hates that you have faith in Jesus. He wants to steer you away from salvation. Especially he wants to steer you away from hearing the Word. He wants you to form your thinking by your doubts, instead of from the Lord’s words.
This is a relentless attack in your life. But don’t fear. And don’t be tempted to back off. It will appear that we who hold to the truth of God’s Word are in the minority. But if we peel back the curtain, and are able to see into God’s throne room, you’d see that the Truth Himself, Jesus Christ, with the Father and the Spirit, as the full Godhead is surrounded by saints and angels.
Before this throne of God you’re vindicated! (A great word.) You’re justified by grace, through faith in Christ. You’re already, by faith, connected to the saints in heaven, one with them. You’re part of an undefeatable army even while you struggle in this world. You see the Truth revealed in this scene.
Meanwhile all who follow what seems in this world to be the majority view, who came to the end of life and found out too late that what we follow really is the truth, are in agony in the torments of hell and – like the rich man in Luke 16 – wishing their fellow skeptics in this world could come to the truth. So don’t fear what they say. See it as a harmless attack that can’t affect you, you’re in the Lord’s mighty hands. Don’t be angry at them. Have com-passion. Desire to bring them the truth of the Gospel. Speak the truth in love.
This is why we need the end of this reading. “For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
St. Paul shows us the way. The right way to understand the Bible and the right way to see Jesus is through a special pair of glasses, a special lens, that is called “grace.” Grace is God’s undeserved love. It’s His forgiving love.
See, we don’t boast at all in ourselves for holding to the truth. We know we haven’t earned anything and don’t deserve anything. It’s because we’re sinners. People would’ve accused Paul and said: “You’re the worst sinner ever; you persecuted Christians,” and he wouldn’t even defend himself, he would say “guilty as charged, chief of sinners though I be, Jesus shed His blood for me,” and let Christ defend him. So that’s how we respond to the world and to Satan’s attacks when he tempts you to doubt the truth of God’s Word or to hold back on your confessing the faith, or when he’s accusing you of being hypocritical and showing you your blemishes of sinful pride and spiritual apathy.
We just accept what God says about us as being true: that He forgives us completely for all these things, not because we deserve it but because of what Jesus did for us. Against the accusations of the Law, which we acknowledge as true, we place the precious blood of Jesus which washes away all our sin.
With Paul we say: “By the grace of God I am what I am.”
With Paul we say: “The grace of God is with me.” Amen!